Most commonly known as the “Wolf of Wall Street” Jordon Belfort is an unscrupulous Wall Street trader. His insatiable ambition saw him jailed for fraud, for 22 months. He admits he did the wrong thing and has actively tried to change his life and inspire others to do the same. Born in the USA, Jordan went on to enroll at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry. After the dean of the school said to Jordan on the first day “The golden age of dentistry is over. If you’re here simply to make a lot of money, you’re in the wrong place.” After hearing this Jordan walked out of the class never to return.
Jordan Belfort put all of his energy towards other business opportunities, namely door-to-door meat and seafood sales. The venture ultimately failed, it was then that Jordan became a trainee stockbroker where he was initially laid off from LF Rothschild, after financial constraints resulting from the Black Monday crash. Despite the setbacks Jordan Belfort did not give up, in fact, he only became more determined.
Belfort founded Stratton Oakmont as a franchise of Stratton Securities and after making a fortune owing to his incredible salesmanship, he bought out the original founder. Stratton Oakmont functioned as a boiler room which marketed penny stocks and defrauded investors with the “pump and dump” type of stock sales. During his time at Stratton Oakmont, Jordan leads a lavish life of extremes. After defrauding investors of around $200 million, the party came to a crashing halt when Jordan was jailed for securities fraud and money laundering.
Jordan’s cellmate was Tommy Chong of Cheech& Chong fame, who encouraged Jordan to write his book and helped to mould his new positive outlook on life. After leaving prison Jordan stated: “I got greedy…. Greed is not good. Ambition is good, passion is good. Passion prospers.”
He writes: “The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it. The story we tell ourselves can ruin our chances for success in the future. You’ll never live a prosperous and successful life if you keep telling yourself a negative story. If you feel like you are being held back from something on the inside, identify the limiting belief and ask yourself if it matters? Chances are it does not. Make a new story of your future success and move forward with unshakeable belief.”
He says, “Winners use words that say ‘must’ and ‘will’. Simply put, if you want to be a winner you need to speak with confidence and success in your life. Take action immediately, live proactively and chase your goals aggressively. Act as if you’re a wealthy man, rich already, and then you’ll surely become rich. Act as if you have unmatched confidence and then people will surely have confidence in you. Act as if you have unmatched experience and then people will follow your advice. And act as if you are already a tremendous success, and as sure as I stand here today – you will become successful. Choose to act as if you are already the future self that you want to become. Believe and you will achieve.”
Further, he confirms: “Successful people are 100% convinced that they are masters of their own destiny, they’re not creatures of circumstance, they create the circumstance if the circumstances around them suck they change them. You need to take 100% accountability for every area of your life. If you hate your job make a plan and leave it.”
He believes that the people you spend time with have a significant impact on your future, so if you want to achieve greatness “avoid dream killers and find people who motivate and inspire you regularly. Dream stompers are people who want to stomp on your hopes and dreams. Lose their phone numbers.”
He feels that everything that has happened to you up to this point is irrelevant. It’s your past. “Don’t dwell on the past. Learn from it, but move on quickly. You can’t take massive action moving forward if you are always looking backward.”
